Behind the melodramatic lines, the tears, and the grandiose proclamations of love and hate in the purportedly long-awaited sequel to Terms of Endearment, The Evening Star, there's virtually nothing but a dysfunctional upper-class Southern family pathetically held together by self-consumed grand matron Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine). As a study in dull people, the film works, but writer/director Robert Haring can't make us care about these characters. It's not simply that the family squabbles are petty; what family's aren't? The film blurs the line between daytime soaps and real-life in such a way that both the movie and reality seem utterly stupid.

There are too many soapy escapades in the film to recount, but they all spin around Aurora and her screwed-up grandchildren. The more ridiculous highlights are Aurora's love affair with her younger, air-headed counselor (Bill Paxton) and her granddaughter Melanie's (Juliette Lewis) Los Angeles pipe dreams. And then there's the return of philandering ex-astronaut Jack Nicholson's Garrett Breedlove for a 10-minute scene, which goes on for 10 minutes too long and supplies no closure to this film or to the original. The odd thing is, I enjoyed Terms of Endearment. At the Nickelodeon, the Fresh Pond, the Chestnut Hill, and in the suburbs.